Wi Spa suspect still at large — has history of indecent exposure and masturbation
The person charged with indecent exposure at the Wi Spa in Los Angeles — a case that led to violent clashes between protesters and transgender activists — is still at large, as sordid new details of their criminal record have emerged.
A judge in Los Angeles County Superior Court issued a second arrest warrant for Darren Agee Merager, 52, on Sept. 8 after Merager failed to appear at a hearing related to six felony charges of indecent exposure in connection with a previous case at a West Hollywood swimming pool. Merager, a registered sex offender in California for two prior convictions of indecent exposure, identifies as a woman, but law enforcement sources said that’s a ruse to get into women’s-only areas. In the Wi Spa case, Merager is accused of exposing an erect penis to four women and a minor girl.
In an interview with The Post, Merager said of the warrant, “I consider this a kidnapping! My anonymity is being ruined in a slanderous way.”
Merager’s latest legal woes began on June 24, when a video uploaded on Instagram by “Cubana Angel” went viral. The video showed an irate woman complaining to staff at Wi Spa in Los Angeles’ Koreatown about a person exposing themselves in the women’s section. The incident led to weeks of violent rioting involving Antifa and opposing protesters.
Though declared a “hoax” by some media outlets, Merager was eventually charged as the suspect on Aug. 30. Sources tell The Post that Merager had been banned by Wi Spa back in 2019 due to customer complaints of an erection in the women’s section, but Merager wasn’t recognized by the front desk in June because they were wearing a mask. (Wi Spa did not respond for comment.)
“I don’t remember being banned,” Merager says, adding there was one complaint but maintains it was meritless and based on transphobia.
Five females, including “Cubana Angel” and a minor girl, came forth as victims to the Los Angeles Police Department. They allege Merager was partially erect. In Merager’s ongoing West Hollywood Park swimming pool case, multiple women and minor girls also accuse Merager of being erect in the changing room.
Merager, who stands 6-foot-2 and weighs around 200 pounds, says the women are mistaking a large appendage for an erection.
“I don’t have a small penis but you can’t say that’s an erection,” Merager says. “What if you used the men’s room and someone said they don’t like the size or shape of your penis? That’s what they’re doing.”
This isn’t Merager’s first indecent exposure case. Merager was convicted in 2003 for looking through the window of an elderly woman’s home in Arcadia, Calif., while masturbating, illuminated by a flashlight. “I may have been somewhere I didn’t belong but I wasn’t doing it for [sexual] gratification and I wasn’t showing myself off,” Merager contests.
Merager says it was a mistake to plead guilty. When asked if they ever masturbated on the property, Merager said: “I don’t remember that night so I can’t comment. It was a long time ago.”
Merager has also been implicated in sex crime investigations that did not result in charges. In June 2018 while on parole for a burglary conviction, Merager was identified as a suspect in an alleged indecent exposure incident at a gasoline station in Burbank, Calif. According to the police report, three customers reported to the cashier that a person with no underwear wearing a seethrough fishnet-style outfit was exposing themselves at a pump. The responding officer reviewed the surveillance video which allegedly showed the person standing by the pump for over an hour and lifting their leg onto a curb to expose themselves. Merager was identified as the suspect because of the vehicle’s license plate.
“[My parole officer] investigated me the next day and I was 100 percent cleared,” Merager says. No victims came forward to law enforcement and the case was closed.
Then on Dec. 26, 2018, police responded to the Palm Springs Swim Center after the coaches of a high school girls’ water polo team called police. According to the incident report, one of the coaches said he aggressively confronted Merager after the school girls alerted him that Merager had exposed their penis in the women’s changing room.
“Merager advised he was only showering and did not masturbate or touch himself inappropriately,” reads the police report. “He said that he would defend himself if he is threatened. He said he needs to swim to do his physical therapy.”
Merager also told the officer that she is transgender and that her doctor told her to use the facilities she feels comfortable in. Merager was not arrested or charged.
Merager says the confrontations and police reports are evidence of “systemic transphobia.”
“Even if I was the worst person in the world, you’re allowed to access the facility [of your gender],” Merager says, adding that she is legally female in California. The state’s civil rights law prohibits discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression. However, Merager says the law is insufficient because trans people could be criminalized on accusations of indecent exposure for being nude in changing areas or spas.
Merager accuses “Cubana Angel” and the other women of lying to police and being motivated by hate.
Merager wouldn’t say when it would be “safe” to report to law enforcement. The search for Merager culminated in a dramatic felony stop on a vehicle in Monterey Park, Los Angeles County last week. Multiple officers and a support helicopter was sent to respond, but the driver wasn’t Merager — it was a family member.
“They’re having a tough time tracking me down. That’s good. They’ll find me when I turn myself in,” Merager said.
Whenever that happens, Merager expects to be jailed in a women’s facility.
